


let your shadows fall like dust

by thegeneralgirl



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is the one with the self-doubt for once, F/M, sort-of reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 21:59:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9092356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegeneralgirl/pseuds/thegeneralgirl
Summary: Chat Noir can't bring himself to say goodbye to the best thing that's ever happened to Adrien Agreste.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the [beautiful fanart](http://australet789.tumblr.com/post/154922180985/you-are-enough-these-little-words-somehow) [australet789](http://australet789.tumblr.com/) made for their ML secret santa exchange. It broke my heart in the best of ways, and this fic 100% does not do it justice.

They’ve won.

They’ve finally won.

Chat Noir looks out across the breadth of the observatory from where he’s sprawled on his back, instinctively seeking out a familiar red shape.

None of it feels quite real.

There are stars in the air, Chat thinks faintly, squinting through the dusty light. Then he blinks, and the improbable thought becomes the realization that it’s just the shards of stained glass littering the floor around him, reflecting the sun shining smudgily through the newly shattered window.

His ears catch a few soft murmurs, and the observatory is transformed into a kaleidoscope of light and color as the darkness lifts and thousands of white butterflies stream out across the summer sky.

Ladybug stands tall in the middle of it all, hair windswept from the steady beat of the butterflies’ wings, and Chat has to grin—wonder, pride, and fierce, fierce love etched in every crease of his smiling face.

Chat knows Ladybug has to be exhausted, has to be just as bruised and battered as he is, but the entire time, she keeps her gaze steady on the man crumpled in a pile at the foot of the window.

“The police will be here soon. You’ll never touch a Miraculous again, Hawk Moth.”

The man lifts his head, a smile curling the corner of his bloodied lip, and it’s Chat he looks at when he says, “Yes, but neither will you.”

 

*****

 

The authorities arrive, and the media, and then the massive, overwhelming crush of people. Chat stays close to Ladybug even after she’s done giving a brief statement to the police—hovering, clinging.

To his surprise, the minute the crowd’s attention is diverted by the sight of Hawk Moth being led away in handcuffs, she loops an arm around his waist and releases her yoyo, taking off through the air.

Ladybug lets go of him as soon as Chat gets his bearings, but the warmth of her arm lingers happily in his chest. He doesn’t ask where she’s going, only shadowing her every move in that seamlessly synchronized way of theirs. Paris flies by below them, and Chat is sure that absolutely nothing in the world will ever compare to the rush of wind in his ears and the red blur of Ladybug before him.

_Yes, but neither will you._

Hawk Moth’s voice is a jarring intrusion in his otherwise happy thoughts, and Chat stumbles and loses his footing. Cursing, he catches himself and hurriedly scans the horizon for Ladybug. She’s already slowing, and he realizes with a start that they’re near the Eiffel Tower.

Their favorite spot.

Of course.

There’s enough momentum left that Ladybug makes two trips around the landmark before she lands lightly next to Chat.

He’d used the extra time to prepare himself: “Whisker-ing me away, milady?”

Instead of rolling her eyes as she’s wont to do, Ladybug _glows_. Her smile transforms her face, and when her hands come up, it’s not to flick his bell or tap his nose, but to pull Chat into a bone-crushing hug.

He barely has time to process this new development before she’s letting go of him again, that dazzling grin still on her face.

“It’s over, Chat. _It’s over._ ”

 

*****

 

His answering smile is automatic and brittle, and a second later it crumples. Because it _is_ over, not just the fighting and the nightmares and the pain, but also the best thing to have ever happened to Adrien Agreste.

The suit. Plagg. The freedom. _Ladybug_.

_Yes, but neither will you._

“Chat?” Ladybug murmurs. “You okay, kitty?”

Adrien wants to reassure her—he tries to smile, he really does, but all he is able to manage is a small, watery _yes_.

Leaning closer, Ladybug rises onto her tiptoes, her hands settling firmly on his shoulders for leverage. “Are you hurt?” she asks, peering intently into his eyes.

Her proximity and worried affection undoes him, and to his horror Adrien is powerless to stop the tears from spilling. His own hands rise to grip her arms, and he has to close his eyes because it’s too much; she’s too close and too wonderful and he doesn’t know how he can say goodbye.

“It’s over.”

“I don’t understand—”

It’s the second hardest thing he’ll ever have to do, but Adrien gently pushes Ladybug away. He turns to try and hide the tears from her, one hand furiously scrubbing at his face. His lady is relentless though, and when he opens his eyes she’s still right there.

Swallowing, Adrien tries again, “I don’t know how to be just the boy behind the mask anymore…He’s nothing special without the ring. Without you.”

Ladybug draws back; she almost looks offended. “What do you mean _without me_? Do you plan on leaving?”

“N-No, I’m not. I just—I’m not like this, without Plagg. Without my kwami and the magic and the suit. I’m not enough.” Adrien wants to pace, out of frustration and out of fear, but Ladybug’s bewildered stare holds him in place.

“I’m just…Everybody loves Chat Noir, but people have a habit of leaving the boy on the other side of the mask.”

Ladybug’s eyebrows draw together in a harsh slash, her mouth forming a little moue of outrage. Of all the reactions he’d been expecting, Adrien had not prepared himself for anger, and he shrinks away from the sudden force of it.

He thinks Ladybug must catch the flinch that passes over his face, the fear that he hadn’t known he’d had of their _after_ laid bare for her to see. Her expression softens, and when she approaches Adrien this time it’s with the carefulness one adopts when faced with a particularly skittish animal.

The shrill beep of his Miraculous slices through the silence.

Time, he realizes with a panic, is quickly running out.

Ladybug ignores the noise and holds his gaze. Adrien watches, mesmerized, as she cups his face with one hand and lightly traces the edge of his mask with the other.

There are faint freckles on the bridge of her nose; seven that he can count, to be exact. Her lashes tangle wetly at the corners of her eyes, and Adrien realizes that they’re tears.

She is so, so close.

“Kitty,” Ladybug begins, and her eyes are shining not just with tears, but with wonder, pride, and fierce, fierce love. “You are brave, and reckless, and you make terrible puns. You are so incredibly kind, and selfless to a fault. That will always be you, even without the magic and the masks.”

Her voice drops to a whisper: “I promise you’re enough.”

Adrien turns his cheek into Ladybug’s palm and closes his eyes at her words, the earnest truth of them a hot coal of happiness in the pit of his stomach. They stay like that, linked and quiet, until all too soon his Miraculous beeps again.

Ladybug’s hand slips from his face and her warmth recedes as she moves away. When Adrien opens his eyes, she’s standing with one hand on a cocked hip, the other expectantly palming the locket her Lucky Charm had produced during the fight. Ladybug’s trademark confidence is stamped in the curl of her lips and the arch of her eyebrow, and he is so, so in love with this girl—

“Well, come on, _mon minou._ One last Miraculous Ladybug?”

Chat Noir—Adrien Agreste—smiles, and steps forward to meet his partner.

 

*****

 

Later, in a shadowed alley a few streets east from the Champ de Mars, Chat Noir and Ladybug stand across from each other one more time.

When they release their transformations, neither looks away.

 

*****

 

Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng walk into the sunlit streets of their city together, hand-in-hand.

 

*****

 

**fin**

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks as always to Franny, aka **@boreumdal** , for her feedback.


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